Jeremiah 29:11 Mom: Apologia

About Apologia:

Apologia is a creation -based science curriculum for students in elementary through high school.
Zoology 2 Swimming Creatures is its second zoology book and it is appealing to children from 6 years old to 13. "Apologia’s second zoology book will take you and your family on a delightful exploration into the wonders of the swimming creatures."Children will learn from rivers and streams to the ocean and how God equipped all of the aquatic animals to be able to survive. How on the 5th day of Earth's existence, God created millions of creatures "like the strapping sea turtles, the skulking sharks, the delightful dolphins, and the soaring squid gladly joined their fellow sea animals."In lesson 1, the child will learn about aquatic animals, the abyss, and many other fascinating topics about the ocean. Following this lesson, the child will learn about whales,dolphins, and have the opportunity to listen to some whale songs that scientists have recorded. The book has a total of 13 lessons and offers experiments and projects at the end of every lesson. These opportunities reinforce the scientific method and the concepts studies. "Among other experiments and projects, your student will try on blubber, investigate a shark’s ability to sense electrical currents, explore how whales can hear sounds that come from far away, and learn through experimentation which creatures make the best fossils."On the 5th day, God filled the Earth's waters with animals and Zoology 2 Swimming Creatures will help your child learn about that wonderful busy day.

$39.00

The Zoology 2 Junior Notebooking Journal accompanies Exploring Creation with Zoology 2. The notebook was created for K-3 or for children that have a disability. At the beginning of every lesson, the child is given two coloring pictures to complete. At the bottom of every coloring picture, there is Scripture written. After this activity, the child is given the opportunity to journal what she has learned from that particular lesson. "This creative writing exercise provides the opportunity for her to practice her handwriting." Next, she will be able to work with the vocabulary words she learned and has the opportunity to complete the copy work either in print or cursive. The copy work helps the child with her handwriting by having her write out Scripture. "Templates to complete all the notebooking assignments, project record keeping, Scientific Speculation Sheets and, of course, the same beautiful, full-colored miniature books found in the original notebooking journal are included in the junior journal."


Junior Notebook Journal

$24.00

Contact Information

888.524.4724.

How We Used It:

For the first lesson, my daughter had to color a picture of animals found in the ocean. After she completed coloring the picture, I had her read the Scripture that was written on the bottom of the page. Genesis 1:21 "So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems..." I really loved that the lesson incorporated the Bible. I then asked her questions pertaining to some of the animals found in the picture. For example, we talked about vertebrates and invertebrates. We also discussed the difference between fresh water and ocean water animals. We also made an aquarium. Every time she learned about a particular animal, she would draw the animal on a piece of paper, cut it out, and then add it to her aquarium. When she learned about the surface currents, we tried the experiment suggested in the book. We took a casserole dish and filled it half way with water. We then sprinkled some glitter in the water. Then she placed a fan at one end of the the casserole dish and the other fan at the other end. She turned on both fans and saw the glitter flow in a circle just like a mini gyre. When she learned about the continental slope, she was introduced to the sunlit zone, twilight zone, and the midnight zone. The midnight zone is called the abyss. A few days later, she was watching Octonauts and the episode was about abyssal animals. When the cartoons started talking about the midnight zone, my daughter said "Mom, we just learned about that." When learning about whales, my daughter learned that whales are called cetaceans. We learned that the whales breathing system is completely separate from the whale's mouth. This amazing God design helps the whale to eat underwater. When the chapter talked about whaling, I was able to remind her that we had learned about this practice last year when we discussed World War 2. It was pretty awesome to be able to connect what she learned last year to what she was learning at the time. When she learned about the beluga whale, I was able to find some beluga sounds on the Internet and she was able to hear them. She also made a gray whale out of Origami paper and painted barnacles all around the chin and upper and lower jaw. At the end of this lesson, she made a whale mobile and completed the sound experiment found at the end of the lesson.

What We Thought:

My daughter and I really enjoyed Apologia Zoology 2. The book did provide a daily schedule for reading and assignments which I initially followed, however, the reading was a bit much for my 7 year old. For the first lesson, I read to her the amount recommended by the author and she was really having a hard time staying focused. This is why she started on the aquarium at the very beginning and added a sea creature every time she learned about it instead of waiting until the end of the chapter. My daughter is a tactile learner and sitting there hearing me read was difficult for her. After a few pages, I would stop and ask her questions to check for comprehension but she was a bit bored. My husband suggested for me to read the next lesson and then teach her what I had learned. This actually worked and I was pretty embarrassed I did not think of this on my own. This was a strategy I used when I taught my special education students to keep them focused. So the following day, I went to the gym and as I used the stationary bike, I read the lesson and underlined what I thought she needed to know. The people behind me probably thought it was pretty weird to see a 30 something year old woman reading a science book. ;) I did appreciate that the schedule was flexible and this allowed me to go as deep as my daughter wanted to go with a particular lesson. The curriculum also provided an opportunity for her to record what she had learned by either drawing or writing a few sentences. The "How to Use this Book Guide" and the "Items Needed" found in the beginning of the book, was very helpful. Many of the items used to complete the activities were things that I already had at home. Even though I have not used the 50 review questions found at the end of the journal, I'm looking forward to completing the curriculum and asking her the questions. I probably will not ask her all of the questions on the same day. I would probably break them up into a few days and see how much she retained. My daughter and I enjoyed this curriculum and we would recommend it.